Do Not Touch My Dignity

We have known each other now for years,
there is an understanding and closeness there
that I have come to enjoy and appreciate.

We both have seen good days and bad, have had to make amends
with the tricks destiny can play, with currents running the other way,
with life's ups and downs, and its questions to which it often refuses a reply.

There are times we both confide and get to the other side of challenges and trials,
we can laugh and we can cry, family of a different kind, where blood is not
a requirement to be part of each other's clan and each other's heart.

But, my dear friend, you must know, there are places even you cannot go,
there are hidden places in my soul that even you must leave alone.
Do not , do not touch my dignity, I ask of you with all sincerity.

Do not touch that garment I stitched together so carefully
with threads of coarse sorrow and silken joy, with colours
both dark and bright, to get me through the darkest of nights.

So, do not, do not , do not touch my dignity, I ask of you.
It is my sacred robe that allows me to go on when even you
do not understand my anger or my doubt, my fears and my hurts.

My dignity is mine, there are days it seems that cloak is all I have
to keep warm my soul and to keep on keeping on down that path
of life that I have been walking on both with hope and resolve.

Do not touch my dignity, leave be the nakedness that at times is me
and have mercy on my pride as I cover up what you want to understand
but not even I can name or explain without contest or doubt.

Just be my friend as you have always been, and I will share what I can
and maybe some day I will share a part of that robe I wear as my disguise,
but in the meantime, please, do not touch my hard earned, hard worn dignity.


Trudi Ralston.
April 28th, 2016.